The abiding immigration question is what we do with the 12-20 million illegal aliens that are already here in the United States.

Many, of course, want to legalize them all now.

Others, like Charles Krauthammer and Rand Paul, want to legalize them all after we secure the border. Here was Krauthammer yesterday on Fox:

"So I think if you're going to do the step of legalizing these 11 million, which I would do, that has to come after you have secured the border..."

If we don't legalize them, such folks argue, the only alternative is to round them up and send them home in cattle cars, and nobody wants to do that.

But this is what is known as the fallacy of the excluded middle, as if there were two and only two options. But this is a third and better way, that involves neither mass legalization nor mass deportation.

That option is self-repatriation.

How do we get there? First, we must, as Krauthammer and Paul argue, secure the border. We must build a double-layer security fence across the entire length of the southern border as priority one.

This can be done. A member of my production team calculated that the upper end cost of completing such a fence would be about $33 billion. Another $2 billion a year would be required to maintain it.

Fences work. As Krauthammer pointed out, that's why they have one around the White House. The San Diego sector erected a double layer security fence and quickly discovered that criminal trespass into the United States was cut by 90%.

We built the Empire State Building in 18 months in the middle of the Great Depression, so we can do it if we want to. We do not lack the ability, we lack only the will.

Then, once the fence is in place, we should institute E-Verify for everything. E-Verify is a federal database that can be accessed online in a matter of moments to determine if the Social Security number being submitted is a legitimate number and belongs to somebody who has the right to have it. Verification takes between three and five seconds.

We would use E-Verify for job eligibility. No E-Verify, no job. We would use E-Verify for welfare benefits. No E-Verify, no food stamps or subsidized housing. We would use E-Verify for education. Even though the Supreme Court has foolishly ruled that illegal alien children must be educated at taxpayer expense, every parent who registers a child in a public school would have their legal status checked.

Alabama instituted these common sense policies in 2011, and before an activist court vacated the provisions, thousands and thousands of jobs immediately opened up for American citizens and enrollment in public schools immediately plunged. One meat packing plant had lines around the block consisting of American citizens applying for jobs that had been held by illegal aliens. Classrooms that were full on Friday were half-empty the following Monday.

With no jobs and no welfare, these illegals simply left for adjacent states or took themselves home. A similar nation-wide policy will have a similar nation-wide result. And all without spending a dime of taxpayer money.

Bottom line: the solution is not legalization or a mass round-up. It's self-repatriation. It works every time it's used. Maybe we should try it sometime.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer is the host of the daily 'Focal Point' radio talk program on AFR Talk, a division of the American Family Association. 'Focal Point' airs live from 1-3 pm Central Time, and is also simulcast on the AFA Channel, which can be seen on the Sky Angel network.